NOTES. Page 40.-"Thou calm, chaste scholar." -Charles Chauncy Emerson; died May 9, 1835. Page 40.-" And thou, dear friend." James Jackson, Jr., M.D.; died March 28, 1834. Page 76.-"Hark! the sweet bells renew their welcome sound."-The churches referred to in the lines which follow are, I. "King's Chapel," the foundation of which was laid by Governor Shirley in 1749. 2. Brattle Street Church, consecrated in 1773. The completion of this edifice, the design of which included a spire, was prevented by the troubles of the Revolution, and its plain, square tower presents nothing more attractive than a massive simplicity. In the front of this tower is still seen, half embedded in the brick-work, a cannon-ball, which was thrown from the American fortifications at Cambridge, during the bombardment of the city, then occupied by the British troops. 3. The "Old South," first occupied for public worship in 1730. 4. Park Street Church, built in 1809, the tall white steeple of which is the most conspicuous of all the Boston spires. 5. Christ Church, opened for public worship in 1723, and containing a set of eight bells, until of late years the only chime in Boston. Page 118.-"AGNES."-The story of Sir Harry Frankland and Agnes Surraige is told in the ballad with a very strict adhesion to the facts. These were obtained from information afforded me by the Rev. Mr. Webster of Hopkinton, in company with whom I visited the Frankland Mansion in that town, then standing; from a very interesting Memoir, by the Rev. Elias Nason of Medford, not yet published; and from the manuscript diary of Sir Harry, or more properly Sir Charles Henry Frankland, now in the library of the Massachusetts Historical Society. At the time of the visit referred to, old Julia was living, and on our return we called at the house where she resided.1 Her account is little more than paraphrased in the poem. If the incidents are treated with a certain liberality at the close of the fifth part, the essential fact that Agnes rescued Sir Harry from the ruins after the earthquake, and their subsequent marriage as related, may be So with reaccepted as literal truth. gard to most of the trifling details which are given; they are taken from the record. It is to be hoped that the Rev. Mr. Nason's Memoir will be published, that this extraordinary romance of our sober New England life may become familiar to that class of readers who prefer a rigorous statement to an embellished narrative. It will be found to contain many historical facts and allusions which add much to its romantic interest. It is greatly to be regretted that the Frankland Mansion no longer exists. It was accidentally burned on the 23d of January 1858, a year or two after the first sketch of this ballad was written. A visit to it was like stepping out of the century into the years before the Revolution. A new house, similar in plan and arrangements to the old one, has been built upon its site, and the terraces, the clump of box, and the lilacs, doubtless remain to bear witness to the truth of this story. Since the above note was written the Rev. Mr. Nason's interesting Memoir of Sir Harry Frankland has been published. Page 359.-"GRANDMOTHER'S STORY OF BUNKERHILL BATTLE."-"They're as safe as Dan'l Malcolm."-The following epitaph is still to be read on a tall gravestone standing as yet undisturbed among the transplanted monuments of the dead in Copp's Hill Burial-ground, one of the three city cemeteries which have been desecrated and ruined within my own remembrance: "Here lies buried in a a true son of Liberty, 1 She was living June 10, 1851, when this ballad was published. |